Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win

for explaining the strategic mission, developing the tactics, and securing
the training and resources to enable the team to properly and
successfully execute.
If an individual on the team is not performing at the level required
for the team to succeed, the leader must train and mentor that
underperformer. But if the underperformer continually fails to meet
standards, then a leader who exercises Extreme Ownership must be loyal
to the team and the mission above any individual. If underperformers
cannot improve, the leader must make the tough call to terminate them
and hire others who can get the job done. It is all on the leader.
As individuals, we often attribute the success of others to luck or
circumstances and make excuses for our own failures and the failures of
our team. We blame our own poor performance on bad luck,
circumstances beyond our control, or poorly performing subordinates—
anyone but ourselves. Total responsibility for failure is a difficult thing
to accept, and taking ownership when things go wrong requires
extraordinary humility and courage. But doing just that is an absolute
necessity to learning, growing as a leader, and improving a team’s
performance.
Extreme Ownership requires leaders to look at an organization’s
problems through the objective lens of reality, without emotional
attachments to agendas or plans. It mandates that a leader set ego aside,
accept responsibility for failures, attack weaknesses, and consistently
work to a build a better and more effective team. Such a leader, however,
does not take credit for his or her team’s successes but bestows that
honor upon his subordinate leaders and team members. When a leader
sets such an example and expects this from junior leaders within the
team, the mind-set develops into the team’s culture at every level. With